Emmy Catch-Up: Succession (Season Premiere)

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. This year, I’m getting a jump start to check out the entire season of some of most high-profile shows I didn’t watch when they originally aired.

Succession: Season 2, Episode 1 “The Summer Palace” (B)

Here’s another show whose appeal I’ve never quite understood. I watched the pilot and then the second half of season one, and now I’m going to invest more heavily in the storyline in an effort to appreciate it fully. I immediately recognized an actor who I believe was just in a bit part, Ingvar Sigurðsson, the star of the Icelandic film “A White, White Day,” who appeared in the first scene when he came to spirit Kendall away from his insanely fancy rehab back to the real world. It was helpful to see the entire family together meeting with Logan as rumors circulated about him thinking about selling the company. I don’t know quite enough about all the characters to understand what they’re capable of, but it seems clear that the only one who presents as moderately decent – Kendall – is still a pretty terrible person, evidenced by his reaction to the type of cocaine that Greg brought him. Shiv wasn’t too warm to Kendall but Roman was particularly harsh, and after putting his hand down during the vote to oust Logan, he’s now feeling freer in what he says in earshot of his father. He wasn’t happy with being named co-COO with Kendall, while Shiv seemed much more pleasantly surprised by her father’s promise to make her CEO after a certain period of time. I suspect, like she does, that it won’t actually come to fruition, but that’s just part of the intense drama this show is sure to provide over the course of the rest of the season.